Agency: Endangered salmon can co-exist with dams on Kennebec

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

2 hours ago

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Endangered Atlantic Salmon in the Kennebec River can be protected without removing four hydroelectric dams, federal energy regulators say, leaving conservation groups stunned.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reached the conclusion in a draft environmental assessment on July 1 in the relicensing one of four dams owned by the Canada-based Brookfield Renewables.

The regulators said the fish can be protected and brought back to a population of at least 2,000, even if the Shawmut Dam in Benton injures or kills as many as 4% of them. That’s a lower bar than both conservationists and Maine’s Department of Marine Resources have called for.

“It’s really bad. It’s incredibly bad,” said Nick Bennett, a staff scientist at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, told Maine Public.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-dams-salmon-20c50b6429c06ae875ee3b8c9a040455

[jeffreyi]

1. Humans 1st

All other life forms, forget it.

[jeffreyi]

2. Besides, who cares about the long term. Or medium or short term, for that matter.

[NickB79]

3. 2,000 seems like an incredibly low population target

A population so small could be wiped out in a single bad season. Look at the salmon dieoffs on the West Coast right now.

[not fooled]

4. Who's on the FERC?

Looks like all 5 are red don appointees.

Surprise, surprise (not)!

[link:https://www.ferc.gov/about/commission-members|]

[rpannier]

7. The Commissioners are all Trump appointees. The Chairman appointed by Trump and Biden

Chairman Richard Glick was named by President Biden to be Chairman of the Federal Regulatory Commission on January 21, 2021 and is serving a Commission term that ends June 30, 2022.

Glick was nominated to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by President Donald J. Trump in August 2017 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 2, 2017.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. Shoot, all they gotta do is swim the other direction from the outflow

And then through the giant turbines that are spinning the opposite direction ... what's the problem?

[LT Barclay]

6. Remember, reports like this are usually done with "stakeholder" (read industry) input. So...

essentially worthless.
My family just finished watching the movie "Dark Waters" which I'd recommend, but it is the same story again and again.